Exploring Influences of Parents-Adolescents Relationships into Media Literacy

Abstract

　　The present study aims at exploring how adolescents' cognition of the relationships with their parents influences their media literacy, in particular, positive attitudes toward collection of novel information and critical examination of information.

　　The survey was administered for 364 students aged from 17 to 22, via the Internet. The survey adopted two psychological scales, “Parents-Adolescents Relationships Scale” (46 items for both parents) and a part of “The Scale for the Skills of Practical Use of Information” (26 items) for measuring respondents’ cognition of the relationships with their parents and media literacy, respectively. A factor analysis and item analyses extracted four subscales measuring attitudes toward collection of novel information, self-confidence of integrating information, and skeptical attitudes toward information from others and mass-media. The results of ANOVAs suggested weak gender differences on one of these literacy measures and several subscales of cognition of the relationships with parents, showing that female respondents were more aware of the relationships with their parents than male respondents. Moreover, the results of regression analyses suggested that adolescents’ cognition of independence on their fathers positively contributes to their capacities of media literacy, although their cognition of the relationships with their mothers ambivalently affects their media literacy, in particular, in case of female adolescents. The results were consistent with the existing studies arguing the complexity of mother-daughter relationships.